Law school alone is challenging. Soon-to-be attorney Robert “R.J.” Norcia not only exceeded the challenges that come standard with legal education—the difficult coursework, the demanding curricular activities—but when faced with some unprecedented challenges, the ‘15 law grad triumphed still.
In his role as editor-in-chief at Camden for the Rutgers University Law Review, a new entity that represents the merger of Rutgers Law–Camden and Rutgers Law–Newark’s longtime flagship journals, Norcia was instrumental in overseeing the debut publication through.
This past March, the Rutgers University Law Review was distributed in record time to all subscribers of the preexisting publications, Camden’s Rutgers Law Journal and Newark’s Rutgers Law Review, a list that includes some 300 law libraries, colleges, federal judges, state courts, and scholars and students of law.
“Last semester, I was very clear to the staff that we were going to be the first-ever issue published as the Rutgers University Law Review and that we would have to get the issue done in roughly half of the time it takes for a regular issue,” Norcia recalls. “The entire staff rose to the challenge and produced an incredibly balanced and polished issue. Being able to see the issue in the Journal office and know that myself, and the entire staff of the Rutgers University Law Review, published that virtually from scratch and under a unified banner with Newark is something I will remember throughout my career.”
Norcia’s career is well on its way. He leaves Rutgers Law–Camden to begin a clerkship with the Honorable George S. Leone, J.A.D., of the New Jersey Appellate Division. Following his clerkship, Norcia will begin working as an associate in a New Jersey office of Connell Foley LLP, focusing on health insurance fraud. He credits Prof. David Frankford’s health law course for catapulting him into his position at Connell Foley.
Moving forward in his career, he adds that he would love to continue appellate work. “After competing in [and winning] Hunter Moot Court and also writing an appellate brief for Clinic, it just solidified my interest in every aspect of appellate advocacy ranging from persuasive writing to oral arguments.”
Norcia’s passion for legal writing is evidenced in his winning the 2015 Blaine E. Capehart Award for Legal Writing Excellence. As a certified legal intern in the Rutgers Children’s Justice Clinic, taught by Rutgers Law–Camden Prof. Sandra Simkins, Norcia worked on a case, with other law students, that dealt with the transfer of an adjudicated juvenile from juvenile custody to adult custody at the Department of Corrections, pursuant to a regulation that had already been deemed invalid. Because the client had been there for nearly 18 months, filing a regular appeal was not an option and a more complicated course of legal action became necessary.
“Every so often I have the privilege of working with a truly extraordinary law student—R.J. is simply one of the best I have ever seen,” notes Simkins. “R.J. put his whole self into this project —clearing the decks, sacrificing his personal life, calling me at all hours, working alone in the clinic space late on a sunny Friday afternoon. R.J.’s dedication to this client, his unwavering advocacy—even in the face of setbacks and massive frustration, was remarkable.”
To Norcia, winning this writing award not just recognizes the work he performed on behalf of his client, but the work he has done on himself since his first days at community college.
“This award is incredibly meaningful to me because I have always tried to improve my writing stemming back from my days as an undergraduate,” he says, recalling his first two years at Ocean County College, where he was a member of the OCC Honors Program. “To win the Capehart Writing Award is a huge honor that validates all of the work I have done on my writing over the last seven years.”
He acknowledges OCC, the College of New Jersey, where ultimately he earned his undergraduate degree, and Rutgers Law–Camden Professors Carol Wallinger and Ruth Anne Robbins.
“All of the professors I have worked with at Rutgers have always taken time to give me feedback and constructive criticism. This feedback and constructive criticism pushed me to be better because I honestly believe that legal writing is perhaps the most crucial skill for an attorney to have.”